Los Angeles Health Clinic ‘A Microcosm’ Of The Nation’s Anxieties

Dr. Cesar Barba (right), a family physician at the UMMA Community Clinic’s Fremont Wellness Center in South Los Angeles, treats Lourdes Flores Valdez, 42, for her diabetes and other health issues.

Maya Sugarman/KPCC

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Maya Sugarman/KPCC

Dr. Cesar Barba (right), a family physician at the UMMA Community Clinic’s Fremont Wellness Center in South Los Angeles, treats Lourdes Flores Valdez, 42, for her diabetes and other health issues.

Maya Sugarman/KPCC

Lourdes Flores Valdez says she got her diabetes under control after she was able to sign up for Medi-Cal, California’s version of Medicaid, under the Affordable Care Act’s expanded eligibility rules. Sitting in an exam room at the UMMA Community Clinic’s Fremont Wellness Center in South Los Angeles, she suddenly veers away from discussing the health law and starts talking about her husband, who is in the United States illegally.

“If the president takes away my husband’s job, or he deports him, what will happen?” asks Flores, who cleans houses for a living. “How am I going to take care of the children?”